The journalist who wrote the vicious article on Irish cricketer John Mooney, has responded with a follow-up for his newspaper, The Zimbabwe Herald.
In it, Robson Sharuko described Cricket Ireland's response to his original piece as "a vicious attack on the Herald".
Mr Sharuko's
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The piece, which centred around Mooney's catch to deny Zimbabwe cricketer Sean Williams a century in their World Cup match against Ireland on Saturday, launched a very personal attack on the Irish man and provoked a strong response from Cricket Ireland.
Mooney had appeared to step on the boundary line when he caught the ball, but Williams left the field and Ireland went on to win the game by five runs.
In a statement on their website yesterday, Cricket Ireland Chief Executive Warren Deutrom said: “It would be easy to dismiss it as a childish diatribe if it wasn’t for the vicious personal attack on John which cannot pass without comment, and possible action.
“John represents his country with honour, distinction and integrity. That he does in the face of personal challenges about which he has spoken openly and movingly demonstrates incredible hard work and great courage.
“We understand, as does John, that public figures may occasionally be subject to negative comment, but in mocking John in such a contemptuous fashion, and using his personal difficulties as a mere punchline, the Zimbabwe Herald has demonstrated breath-taking crassness and a gross error of editorial judgement. We have made contact with ICC to understand what remedies might be available to us.”
Zimbabwe wicketkeeper Brendan Taylor later
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Mr Sharuko's article today went on to report that Zimbabwe's former Sports Minister likened the incident to Diego Maradona's Hand of God goal against England in the 1986 World Cup and claimed that voices "thundered disapproval across the world, with some even suggesting that Zimbabwe had been cheated out of the World Cup".
In his preview piece for his country's game against India in today's online edition of the Herald, Mr Sharuko briefly mentions "that heartbreaking defeat at the hands of the Irish".
Zimbabwe's game against India on Saturday is a dead rubber because of Ireland's "infamous five run win" against them last week, but he did seem to blame the umpires for the defeat who he claimed made a "monumental questionable call" which lead to "the diabolical dismissal" of Williams.
His final word, for now anyway, on the matter was "the less the controversy related to the Irish game is talked about, the better for the game".
Cricket Ireland may have something to say about that.